General Question

PS3 overheating when it isn't hot?

Boyfriend and I ordered a PS3 (fat) off ebay so I could play FFXIV Beta. First day I didn’t have any problems other than a slightly low internet connection signal but that wasn’t a huge deal. Loud fan, but loud fans are typical for the old PS3s. Second day, if I have the system on for 5 minutes, it will put up a message saying that it is going to overheat and I have to shut it off. Then another 30 seconds later, it cuts off on its own. The little light on the front never goes yellow. It first is green, then alternates between red and green, then when the system shuts off it just blinks red. This happens regardless of how long I wait in between having the system on and off. It doesn’t matter if I am playing a game or not either; it always lasts no longer than 5 minutes and gives the overheat message. The PS3 is blowing out warm air that is neither cold or really hot. My laptop and TV get 15x hotter than this system is getting :( I have filed a claim to get a refund, but is there something I can do for now or did I just get a busted system? (the seller had high ratings, claimed it to be tested and everything so I’m very upset)

i figured it was from dust; i tried vacuuming tho and that didn’t fix it. I reset it to factory settings and restored it. It worked much longer that time and overheated after about 6 hours. I still am wary though. Since it was ebay, I didn’t ultimately want to be stuck with YLOD on something I spent $135 on, so I am going to return it. We re-bought a PS3 (slim this time) for $150 so eh it’ll be ok

A vacuum doesn’t get all of it; it needs brushing. Look at it this way; if you take your dinner plate of half-eaten food and scrape it off into the trash can with a fork, is the plate clean? No.

There is still probably plenty of gunk between the fins of the heat sink that you left there. Also, the fact that dust even sticks often means that there is some sort of film between the heat sink and the air, and most such films are poor conductors of heat, so it’s comparable to trying to breathe with a pillow (or, if the film is thick enough, a plastic bag) over your face.

Expect similar issues with your next one (and, likely, any other electronics you own) that have cooling fans unless you learn to clean a heat sink properly .

^eh but it wont be a fat (so more memory, quieter, and better network connection) and i wont have to go through the trouble of having to open up something on my own that I just purchased. I understand what you are saying, and if I had owned the system for a long time it’d be cool, it just seems to be a lot to go through for an item that’s supposed to be guaranteed to function as is. That would suck if I opened it up, cleaned it, and it still died on me a couple of weeks later cuz something broke and had to be re-soldered, more YLOD, etc. I just didn’t feel comfortable risking it when I was already having problems from day one u know? I asked the seller of the new one before we bought it; he said the inside has recently been cleaned of dust. So hopefully the new one won’t have any issues.